This invention relates to wire harness protectors, and more particularly to a wire harness protector for routing a wire harness through the door of an appliance, past the door hinge and into the appliance cabinet
Many electrically operated appliances, for instance residential dishwashers, have hollow doors within which are mounted various electrical controls, dispensers and other electrical devices. These electrical components are connected by electrical wires to a source of electric power and to other electrical components which are mounted in the dishwasher cabinet. Conventionally, the connecting wires are preassembled into a wire harness which is then installed during assembly of the appliance. In a wire harness, the wires are conventionally taped together to form a wire bundle with electrical tape or the like. The wire bundle is routed through the appliance door and is held in place and secured to the door by means of tie-down straps or the like.
Due to this type of assembly, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) requires the use of certain approved materials for constructing the appliance door. It is therefore desired to provide a protector for enclosing a wire harness in the door of the appliance to enable the use of less expensive materials for constructing an appliance door.
A wire harness must also be routed past the hinge of the appliance door. The portion of the wire harness which is secured to the door must pivot with respect to the portion of the wire harness which is stationary and secured to the appliance cabinet. Conventionally, two methods have been used for routing the wire harness past the door hinge. In the first method of construction, the wire harness crosses the hinge axis of the door substantially perpendicularly. Thus, the wires which make up the wire harness bundle must flex transaxially, i.e., the wires must bend or flex at right angles to their longitudinal axes. This places strain on the wires and thus may result in metal fatigue of the wires and in breakage thereof and the potential resultant failure of the appliance.
A second arrangement which has been used for routing the wire harness past the door hinge is to route the wire harness in such a way that the wires will twist or flex torsionally as the door is opened. To accomplish this, a portion of the wire harness is routed parallel to the hinge axis so that this parallel portion will twist and flex torsionally as the door is opened. The prior art arrangements nave generally used tubular enclosures to route the wire harness parallel to the door hinge. Such arrangements have been relatively expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, in the assembly of such arrangements, the wire harness must be threaded through the tubular enclosure during the construction or installation of the wire harness. This procedure adds considerably to the labor cost.
It is therefore desired to provide a wire harness protector to both enclose and route the wire harness through the door of an appliance and to route the wire harness past the hinge of the appliance door so that the wires will flex torsionally as the door is pivoted. Furthermore, it is desired to provide such a wire harness protector which is easily installed and into which the wire harness is easily assembled.